Pontsticill – The Melting Pot – Merthyr Tydfil's History and Culture

Mary Baxter

by Alison Davies

As with most 18th and 19th century churchyards when carefully reading each surviving gravestone in Vaynor old churchyard, it sadly becomes clear that this peaceful, melancholy, sanctuary is made up of so many children’s graves, with often eight to ten children from one family buried in a single grave.

Then occasionally you come across a grave showing a life that spanned eight to ten decades, and Vaynor old church yard has its fair share of those lives that were ‘long lived’ too, with there being eight possibly nine centenarians buried here.

On the wall of the new church is a delicate, pretty and well carved headstone originally from the old churchyard, later fixed into the wall of the New Church.

It records Catherine and David Morgan of Rhymney. Catherine was buried on the 23rd of February 1794 aged 106. The stone tells that she was born in the third year of the reign of King James and lived under seven reigns!

Also buried in the old church yard is another centenarian Mary Baxter.

Mary was born in Pontsticill about 1803/04-ish and was the eldest of several daughters to John, an ironstone miner and his wife Jane Walters. When Mary was 11 the family moved to 8 Company Row, Pengarnddu Dowlais.

Mary spoke only in her native Welsh and Pengarnddu was a predominantly Welsh speaking community. She did not go to school and did not read or write, Instead from an early age of possibly 10 she worked on the top of Carno Pit. At the age of 24 Mary married collier John Baxter, they had 14 children, seven girls and seven boys.

Jenkin a traditional family name passed down through the Walters family was given to her son. Jenkin died in 1838 aged 15 months and was buried near the old church in Vaynor churchyard. As was common place during those days children were often called the name of their deceased sibling and often repeatedly, two further sons were given the name Jenkin, but sadly as was all too common neither survived and died 1842 age 15 months the other in 1846 age 1 month.

John, another family name was also the name of a further 3 sons two of whom also died in infancy, all the children were buried in the family grave in Vaynor.

Apart from a very short time staying at Pant Cad Ifor the couple lived at 8 Company Row for the rest of their lives. For Mary that was almost 90 years.

The couple were early members of the Mormon Church and their only surviving daughter eventually emigrated to America. Mary and John also hoped to one day follow but their dream was never realised.

John died in 1882 aged 72 and was buried at Vaynor. Mary continued to live at 8 company Row with her grandchildren .

In June 1905 The Weekly Mail interviewed Mary about her life and the photograph below was taken for the article. Mary was noted to have enjoyed having her photograph taken and recalled having her picture drawn as a young girl.

She also talked of remembering the battle of Waterloo and the Merthyr Riots although she was not ‘an eyewitness’. She also recalled a time when the Dowlais Inn was the only public house in the area and when ‘ Only a few people comprised of the population’.

In the autumn of 1905 Mary was taken up to Vaynor Churchyard to point out where she wanted her final resting spot . She was carried over the churchyard in a basket-carriage to where she pointed out the grave of her husband and several of their children.

Mary died on New Year’s Eve 1905 aged 101.

To see more of Alison’s fantastic research about Pontsarn and Vaynor, please follow this link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/747174317220437

Taf Fechan or Dolygaer Church

by Alison Davies

At the far end of Vaynor, just inside the neighbouring parish of Llandetty, stood the pretty church of St Agnes known as Taff Fechan or Dolygaer Church.

Built in the 1470s, almost 400 years later it was extensively rebuilt in the 1860s. The graveyard was also extended after land was gifted by churchwarden, William Williams, Wernddu, and, a new vicarage also built.

This was a time of immense change in the valley, the building of the Pentwyn Reservoir (Dolygaer Lake) and the construction of the Brecon to Merthyr Railway brought hundreds of day trippers to picnic swim or sail around the lake in Mr Atkins’s steam powered boat.

Then, in 1925, with the added need for clean water, all changed.

The church, its vicarage, the neighbouring Bethlehem Chapel built 1828 and several houses and farms were all demolished for the flooding of the valley, and the building of the Taf Fechan Reservoir that we know today.

The picturesque church with its historic foundations was gone, and, the sacred remains of 445 men, women, children and babies were removed from the graveyard. A further 73 were also removed from Bethlehem Chapel graveyard.

A valley of memories, submerged beneath the lapping waters. Then, every so often, in hot weather, the drought beats the waters retreat, and the archway of Bethlehem Chapel freely emerges from the depths.

At Taf Fechan Church generations of families from the area such as William and Margaret Edward, their sons, Thomas aged 7 days, and, Morgan 2 years, were all removed from their resting place.

Some unknown graves, whose identity was quietly recorded by an unmarked stone, a simple row of river cobbles or a parting in the grass where someone had once sat and grieved. Now, their identity gone, their history lost, they were simply marked as ‘person’ ’child’ and ‘infant’.

Most, including, those both known and unknown, were re-interred at the new burial ground at Pontsticill.

They included 26-year old Sarah Jones from Dowlais and her new born daughter Margery who died Sept 1841, also 71-year old station master Charles Mallet who had worked Torpantau Station for over 45 years, died 1910, or Farmer David Lewis died 1891 Cwm Carr.

Others, such as the ancient Watkins family of Blaencallan, or Rhiwyrychain, and, one of the earliest recorded families in the Dolygaer valley, were reburied at Vaynor and Llandetty Churches.

A new church was opened in 1927 on the embankment above the Dolygaer and a new chapel built in Pontsticill; both are now privately owned.

To see more of Alison’s fantastic research about Pontsarn and Vaynor, please follow this link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/747174317220437

A General View of Pontsarn

by Alison Davies

I love collecting Vaynor memorabilia and postcards of the area, like many local collectors it’s a lifelong passion.

Then every so often a card comes along that is both historically important on the front and back, and please excuse the phrase but ‘it blows me away’ and below is one.

A General View of Pontsarn

This is a rare image taken from the fields overlooking Vaynor a little way below Pontsticill. It’s like peeping through a curtain back in time.

In the centre of the picture is the back of the Church Tavern pub with the two churches at Vaynor you can see the steeple on the new Church, the pathway leading from the old church and first few headstones in the new cemetery. The houses too: Dolcoed, Hy Brasail and Bragty Cottages are clearly visible along with the fields systems around.

The view then sweeps down the valley to the viaduct, Pontsarn Station and beyond its one of the most incredible postcards of Vaynor that I’ve seen.

The back of the card is equally important, it is an incredible piece of Merthyr’s history. Postmarked Merthyr Tydfil 27 Dec 1936 and sent from Gwernllwyn House Dowlais by M E Horsefall (Mary Emmeline Horsfall)

It reads:

Thank you for your card and good wishes.

I hope you and Mr Cobby are well

With good wishes M E Horsfall

Mary Horsfall was a philanthropist who came to Dowlais in 1934 to help at the Educational Settlement formed by John Dennithorne. She lived at Gwenllwyn House Dowlais and from there ran classes teaching unemployed men and women the arts.

Mary invited important artists including Heinz Koppel and Cedric Morris to teach art at Dowlais. Her address book must have read like a who’s who of the art world. Whilst in Dowlais Heinz Koppel painted Mary’s Portrait from his studio at Gwenllwyn House. Also in Dowlais between 1936-1939 Cedric Morris painted two of the most iconic and celebrated paintings in Welsh Art today, Dowlais Tips and Caeharris Post Office. Now in Cyfarthfa Castle Museum.

So who is the card written to ?

Mary Horsfall wrote the card to her friend Lucy Mary Cobby and her husband Anthony Cobby at little Bognor, Frittleworth Sussex.

Little Bognor is a tiny rural hamlet in Sussex re known for its artistic connections however I think Mary knew Lucy Cobby from earlier connections rather than artistic ones.

If you’re interested in the Dowlais Settlement and Mary Horsfall see Christine Trevett’s wonderful article Merthyr Historian Vol 33 p 123.

To see more of Alison’s fantastic research about Pontsarn and Vaynor, please follow this link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/747174317220437

The Gravestones at Vaynor Churchyard

by Alison Davies

Looking at the old postcard of Vaynor churchyard below there are many different types of headstones, tombs and memorials.

Towards the new church you can see the change in memorial style, size and colour. From the 1850s striking new memorials were made from imported marble and became fashionable, gleaming white in the landscape they caught the eye. Many of these stones still stand but now discoloured with time and not so visible and striking.

In the oldest part of the churchyard below the old church you can see the headstones are plainer, shorter and smaller with the exception of a few more recent stones the headstones are of local stone, limestone, sandstone and Breconshire sandstone known for its beautiful red colour. A small stone of Brecon red sandstone quarried from the edge of Pontsticill with Llandetty marks the grave of Nicholas David of Pontysticill Smith (Smithy) who died 1786 aged 74.

Although the role of a headstone was to mark the burial spot and record the departed, today they tell us so much more about local history, geology and the relationship to the landscape around. We can now also distinguish the type of stones used, their design the symbols, their meanings and the style of lettering, it’s like piecing together a jig-saw puzzle.

Although there has been a church on the site at Vaynor since 874 then 1295 when the old church that we know today was built, there are no known graves from the Middle Ages up to the 1700s. Many burials were either not marked or marked only by a simple small stone which has been lost through time.

In Vaynor the earliest grave that remains visible today is a beautiful ledger stone marking the grave of the Rev William Watkin Rector at Vaynor Old Church from 1688 until his death in 1704. The Rev Watkin was buried inside of the old church, under the alter. When the church was taken down the stone became open to the elements. It is beautifully carved in relief with the inscription encircling around giving his family lineage.

It reads:

Here lieth the body of William Watkins , rector of this parish.

Son to Watkin John of Panty (Pandy) he married Jane daughter to William Garston of Newcourt in Herefordshire, Gent, by whom he had issue, William, John, Samuel Benjamin, Walter, Edward, Nathaniel, Mary and Elinor, He died – April 1704. Aged 43.

(Coat of arms of the Herbert Family)

There is a similar style stone in Brecon cathedral dated 1676. However, the Breconshire historian Theophilus Jones writing in the 19th century questioned his authority to use the crest. Nevertheless it’s a beautiful stone, however, in the last few years this stone has cracked in half although it is still in its original place.

Ledger stones are inscribed stone slabs usually laid flat into the floor of a church or on the earth to mark the place of burial. There are several ledger stones in Vaynor old Churchyard and quite possibly more as they are easily broken or tend to get covered over, especially when lying flat on the ground. Another ledger stone on the edge of the pathway marks the grave of David Jenkin of Penderyn Parish who died April 1784 aged 78 and his wife Anne died December 1786 aged 81.

Both long lived. The quality of the lettering is simply beautiful and looks like it was carved yesterday.

Just below the old Church is a mysterious Ledger stone marking the grave of Thomas Edmund The famous Racer who died 1785.

His story was well known into the 19th century and was written about in the 1890s by historians including Rev J E Jenkins Rector of Vaynor, William Morgan Vaynor Handbook and Charles Wilkins History of Merthyr Tydfil. Thomas was a runner who won many races. Many fortunes were made and some lost when betting on his races. He died young at the age of 34 and his death is recorded in the parish records for 1785.

The inscription at the top of the stone reads

Here Lie the Body of
Thomas Edmund
Who was interred here May
10th 1785, aged 34 years

(The bottom of the stone reads )

The Famous Racer.

The inscription although clear and readable is sited above another faded illegible inscription. The style of the faded inscription appears earlier in date. Was the stone re cut with Thomas’s epitaph? I find it a bit of a mystery. The faded text may have been naturally worn away by the elements however there is no damage to support this in the upper text referring to Thomas. Usually any text at the top of the stone marks the start so the oldest at the top. Whatever is added below therefore comes later. Although you can see the shape of the faded text on the stone but it’s unreadable. I tried ‘grave rubbing’ to get an imprint, but with no luck. I also photographed it from different angles and edited the resolutions to try and improve it with no great success.

The answer may lie with historian William Morgan writing in 1896 a few years after Rev J.E Jenkins. William Morgan referred to the stone as

‘A memorial stone to perpetuate the Memory of Thomas Edmund’.

Perpetuate – to keep on going (I had to google that). So although Thomas Edmund died 1785 there is every possibility that his epitaph which we read today was not added until a hundred years later on a previously used stone, perhaps to keep his story alive?

To see more of Alison’s fantastic research about Pontsarn and Vaynor, please follow this link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/747174317220437

Merthyr’s Chapels: Bethlehem Chapel, Pontsticill

Bethlehem Welsh Independent Chapel, Pontsticill

In 1826 several people who were followers of the Independent movement in Pontsticill started holding meetings in a local house, and they called on Rev T B Evans of Ynysgau Chapel to lead their meetings.

Within two years the small congregation had grown sufficiently for them to consider building their own chapel. With the support of Rev Evans, on 10 October 1898 they leased a plot of land from a local landowner – Philip Watkins, and built a small chapel which was opened for worship on 4 February 1829.

The first minister of Bethlehem was William David, a lay preacher at Ynysgau Chapel who was subsequently ordained and inducted as the minister of Bethlehem in 1830.

Sometime during 1913, the congregation at the chapel learned that the part of the Taf Fechan Valley on which the chapel was built was due to be flooded in order to build the new reservoir. The trustees decided to build a new chapel in the centre of Pontsticill. The Merthyr Tydfil Corporation gave the trustees a piece of land on which to build the new chapel and also £1,500 in payment for the old chapel. The new chapel was built in 1924.

Members of the congregation after the last service at the old chapel on 14 September 1925

By the late 1960’s the congregation had severely dwindled, so in 1968, the trustees reluctantly decided to close the chapel. The building was subsequently sold and converted to a private house.

The ruins of the old chapel still remain beneath the Taf Fechan reservoir, and can sometimes be seen at times when the water level of the reservoir is very low.

Merthyr’s Chapels: Bethlehem Chapel, Pontsticill

Today marks the 95th anniversary of the final service to be held at the ‘old’ Bethlehem Independent Chapel in Pontsticill before it was swept away when the Taf Fechan valley was flooded to create the Pontsticill Reservoir.

‘Old’ Bethlehem Chapel. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive

The first minister of Bethlehem was William David, a lay preacher at Ynysgau Chapel who was subsequently ordained and inducted as the minister of Bethlehem in 1830.

Although in a small community, the congregation at Bethlehem grew steadily and the chapel continued to thrive for the next 90 or so years.

Sometime during 1913, however, the congregation at the chapel learned that the part of the Taf Fechan Valley on which the chapel was built was due to be flooded in order to build the new reservoir. After much debate the trustees decided to build a new chapel in the centre of Pontsticill.

The farewell meeting was held in the old chapel on Monday 14 September 1925.

The farewell meeting at the old chapel. Photo courtesy of the Alan George archive

The Merthyr Tydfil Corporation gave the trustees a piece of land on which to build the new chapel and also £1,500 in payment for the old chapel. The new chapel was opened in 1925.

By the late 1960’s the congregation had severely dwindled, so in 1968, the trustees reluctantly decided to close the chapel. The building was subsequently sold and converted to a private house.

The ruins of the old chapel still remain beneath the Taf Fechan reservoir, and can sometimes be seen at times when the water level of the reservoir is very low.

The ruins of Bethlehem Chapel. Photo courtesy of http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/index.htm

A History of St Gwynno’s Church, Vaynor – part 2

by Ena Moreton

Many thanks to Hywel George, administrator of the Cynon Culture website for allowing me to use this article.

The land for a new building was given by Mrs Mary Williams of Penrhadwy. Vaynor, and work was about to start when Robert Thomson Crawshay, ironmaster at Cyfarthfa, four miles away, offered to build the church at his expense if the money already raised by the congregation, about £700, was put towards what is now St John’s in Cefn Coed. For many years this church was known as St Gwendoline’s, a mistaken dedication caused by confusion among scholars over Welsh and English usage.

A postcard of St Gwynno’s Church from the early 20th Century. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Archive

Father Silas Morgan Harris (1888-1982) corrected the name whose scholarship embraced the Welsh saints and the history of mediaeval Welsh church. St Gwynno appears to have been Abbot Gwynno, born either in 487 or 507, whose feast day falls on October 22 and one of that company of Celtic saints who travelled spreading Christianity throughout these lands. In Scotland he is known as Guinochus and also credited with founding Plouhinec in Britanny and Kilglin in Co. Meath in Ireland. A contemporary view of St Gwynno can be seen in the fine bas relief near the entrance; He is shown with his shepherd’s crook and the invocation ‘St Guinoce, OPN’ – his Latin name and initials of Latin invocation Ora Pro Nobis (Pray for Us). The sculpture is signed AJJA, work of Arthur Ayres, winner of the Prix de Rome 1931 whose works can be seen in major international permanent exhibitions.

This work is in memory of Canon William Henry Harris (1884-1956), elder brother of Father Silas. Both were born in Pontsticill and firmly on the Anglo-Catholic wing of the Church. Canon Harris, known as Father Bill, was professor of Welsh at Lampeter, precentor of the chapel and canon treasurer of St David’s Cathedral. Continuing the family connection, the stained-glass window opposite, depicting the Blessed Virgin and Child, was given by the Harris brothers in memory of their mother, Ann, and is inscribed in Welsh with a line from the Hail Mary “Blessed art Thou amongst women”. The figure of the guardian angel further down the church could not be more distinctively Victorian. The angel is in memory of the four daughters and two sons of the Williams family at Penrhadwy, whose mother gave land for the church. All died in quick succession in their twenties and early thirties in the 11 years between 1859 and 1870.

The angel is by Joseph Edwards, Merthyr-born sculptor whose works are also to be found in Westminster Abbey. He was born in 1814, son of a stone-cutter, and is said to have been in love with one of the Penrhadwy daughters. The angel is reputed to have been modelled on her; one of the final three works in a career that saw 70 of his sculptures exhibited at Royal Academy.

The altar and reredos, with its carved woodwork and panelling, date from 1912 given in memory of Herbert Kirkhouse (died 1904, aged 72) a mining engineer at Cyfarthfa Works who married Maria Teresa, one of the Penrhadwy daughters. Maria Teresa is commemorated in the oak font, given by her son in 1930.The present St Gwynno’s was completed in 1868 a year before consecration by Dr Ollivant Bishop of Llandaff, standing in for Dr. Thirlwell, Bishop of St David’s.

The churchyard is noted for the grave of Robert Thomson Crawshay, the church’s benefactor, with its 11-ton granite slab inscribed ‘God Forgive Me.’ There are also graves of people at the lead edge when Merthyr was at the height of its industrial power, though many have been lost to the march of time.

The vegetation on the steep slope running down to the banks of Taf Fechan is now sanctuary to wild life, plant and animal; a protected nature reserve. Speed was not a speciality of Gruffydd Shon, the old bachelor, whose lady love tired of waiting for him and married a farmer. Gruffydd who died of a broken heart composed his own epitaph that existed as late as 1870 but vanished when his gravestone was broken during demolition of the old church. It read:

Here lies the body of Gruffydd Shon
Covered here with earth and stone
You may sweep it up or leave it alone
It will be just the same to Gruffydd Shon.

In the 140 or so years since St Gwynno’s re-build it has shown signs of strain. In 1969 the church tower on the verge of collapse was taken down and remodelled with a new steeple costing £2000. In the 1980s the church was re-roofed with pantiles as near the original as possible; in the late 1990s the internal floor was replaced and whilst work was going on services were held in Pontsticill village hall; the churches own parish hail having been sold in a few years earlier. For most of its 1200 years St Gwynno’s was mother church for the scattered farms and cottages of Vaynor. When Dolygaer reservoir was completed in 1862 and work began on Taf Fechan reservoir in 1910, Pontsticill, the village that originated as home to those involved in the water industry, grew up a mile from the church where many of its congregation now live. The only other building in the immediate vicinity is the Church Tavern, built in 1823, which started life as a Court where law was administered and later became a celebrated local hostelry until its conversion into a house in 2000.

Below are two recent photos of St Gwynno’s Church – Old and New.

To read the original article, please visit: http://cynonculture.co.uk/wordpress/merthyr-tydfil/history-of-st-gwynnos-church-vaynor/

Merthyr Memories: Memories of Dowlais – part 2

by Sarnws

Ivor Street in particular had a reputation for being generous to beggars, who in those days would just walk up the middle of the road, often silent, cap in hand, and the children would run in to tell their mothers, who in turn would spare a few coppers.

Ivor Street in the 1970’s, shortly before it was demolished. Photo courtesy of http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/index.htm

This was in the thirties. By now we had moved from “Merthyr” which generally describes Merthyr itself, Dowlais, Penydarren, Heolgerrig, Pant, Georgetown Twynyrodyn etc. One day I dashed in from the street, quite excited, to tell my mother that there was a beggar, cap in hand, walking down the middle of the road just chanting “Ho Hum, Ho Hum” repetitively. She was as excited as I was and in turn dashed out to put something in his hat. It was a link with “home”, for he was well known to her.

I remember that beggars were quite a common sight. My father in the very early nineteen hundreds, before going to work as an apprentice blacksmith, worked in Toomeys. He was paying in to the bank one day when a beggar who used to push himself around, mounted on a small flat trolley with the aid if two short sticks, was paying in. When he reached the counter, the clerk checking in not an insignificant amount asked if he had had a good day. The reply was, “Average”.

On a few occasions at about 8.30 pm on a Saturday there would be a message from one of the houses in Pontsarn or Pontsicill, to the effect that some friends had dropped in so would Mr. Toomey send up the brace of pheasants he had hanging. My father would be sent on the errand, having been given two-pence for the tram, and with the kind instruction that he needn’t come back.

Until the day she died, sadly quite young, if someone asked my mother when making her way to the train for her weekly visit, where she was going, the reply was always the same, “Home for the day”.

I remember my father, when on a visit to Merthyr when Grandparents and Aunts and Uncles were still there, showing me the Trevithick memorial in Pontmorlais, and being brought up with knowledge of the social and industrial heritage of “Merthyr” and its contribution to the world.

Is it possible when the light is just right that a mirage of the Coal Arch can be seen?

Does the glow from the Bessemer converter still light the night sky?

When I retired, thirty years ago I took the elderly aunt of a colleague to lunch in the Teapot Cafe at the end of the Station Arcade, which was the main exit from Brunel’s station. A lady came in with her husband, nodded to me and smiled. She turned to her husband and I could see her say, ”I know that gentleman”. I could not place her, and just nodded as we left.

The Station Arcade in the 1980s. Photo courtesy of http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/index.htm

A little while later I saw her again in the company of friends or family one of whom I knew. I was drawn into their company. The lady had been living on Orpington as teacher and then head teacher for thirty-five years, so had not encountered me in that time. It transpired that she remembered me from Dowlais school, fifty years before.

My son has a silver pocket watch and chain, given to me by my uncle, of the same christian name just before he died. It was bequeathed to him by an uncle, again of the same name. His aunt had it serviced for him by the clockmaker half way up the arcade. That must have been about 1920.

As you entered that clockmaker’s premises, facing you was a huge grandfather clock. Integral with the pendulum was a cylinder of mercury. This expanded and contracted with temperature change, compensating for the temperature variation in the length of the pendulum rod, seemingly so simple a concept, but how brilliant.

I was telling a colleague, who had been brought up in Dowlais, but previously unknown to me, that I could remember standing under the railway bridge at the end of Station Road, sheltering from the rain, and watching the Fish and Chip shop opposite, in Victoria Street I think, burning down. He turned and said that he had been there too. That had happened, I think, in the winter of 38/39. Thirty-five years or so before.

I have tooted the car horn many times on Johnny Owen, out for his morning run. I always got a wave of the hand in return. What a number of boxers and other sportspeople Merthyr has produced. The last years of my working life were in Merthyr, and being steeped in its history by my parents, it was interesting to encounter family names which were familiar to me, particularly the Spanish ones, as I was familiar with their family histories to some extent.

My parents are buried in Pant Cemetery, as are Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles, Cousins and more. Whenever I visit I cannot but drive around Dowlais, now much changed, but a place to which I am still drawn.

Except for one year, October ‘38 to September ‘39, when I attended Dowlais Junior School, and was a patient for three months in the childrens’ hospital which occupied the original Sandbrook House, I have not lived in Merthyr since I was a baby. When I was discharged from Sandbrook House I had been indoors for nearly the whole of my stay and insisted on riding up as far as the Hollybush Hotel on the open top deck of the tram. The era of the tram ended very shortly afterwards.

Sandbrook House. Photo courtesy of the Alan George Collection

I seem to have read or heard somewhere that nature has implanted within you a sacred and indissoluble attachment to the place of your birth and infant nurture, perhaps Tydfil’s martyrdom has created this aura about Merthyr which evokes such hiraeth.

Demolishing Cefn Railway Bridge

submitted by Carl Llewellyn

While perusing the old Merthyr Expresses I came across an article written on 16 July 1970 entitled:-

Down Comes Link With Railways Pioneers

On 6 July, 1970, Cefn Railway Bridge, which spanned the Cefn Coed High Street was demolished after 104 years due to its unsafe condition. Demolition began at 08:00 a.m. and was completed with about four hours.

The bridge was a continuation of the Cefn Pontycapel Viaduct which completed in 1866 at a cost of £25,000 (equivalent to £2.1 million). The routing of the railway it served, may have been affected by the strong pressure from the powerful Crawshay iron masters.

Cefn Coed High Street showing the Railway Bridge in the early 20th Century

The viaduct was built by Thomas Savin and John Ward, his brother-in-law, to designs prepared by Alexander Sutherland. It had been described as a graceful and majestic structure, one of the finest viaducts in South Wales, being built on a graceful curve which added much to its beauty. With fifteen arches 40 feet each, it has a total length of 725 feet and a height of 115 feet.

Saviour

The Viaduct came into being after many trials and tribulations. At the beginning of 1866 a crisis occurred – Thomas Savin who with John had been managing the railway, and had been paying the shareholders their guaranteed five percent, was overwhelmed by his commitments and failed disastrously, nearly bringing down the finances of the Brecon and Merthyr Junction Railway with him. Other legal frays remained a prominent feature of their lives for the following four years. But despite all this the railway was completed.

The saviour of the venture was Alexander Sutherland who produced an alternative route into Merthyr, which avoided Cyfarthfa Castle by going down the West side of the valley and so won the support instead of the emnity of the Crawshay Family. This was achieved at great engineering expense.

It has been said that a bribe was accepted to divert the railway line around the Crawshay property instead of through it.

The six and three-quarter miles between Pontsticill and Merthyr involved a descent at 1 in 45-50 feet and between Morlais Junction and Merthyr and two complete reversals of direction.

At one stage in the construction of the Pontycapel Viaduct, the stone masons went on strike which meant that the bricklayers had to be called in. This is why one sees bricks lining the underneath of the arches while the remainder of the structure is stone.

The last brick was ceremonially laid by Mrs Sutherland in 1866, but there were further interruptions due to contracting difficulties and it was not until 1 August 1867 that the line was opened from Pontsticill to Cefn, which then replaced Pant as the terminus for the Merthyr horse bus.

The word Pontycapel means bridge to the chapel – it did in fact lead over to a chapel although it is believed that there was a Roman Catholic church at Tai-mawr.

Mr Elwyn Bowen, headmaster of Ysgol-y-Graig Junior School and local historian, said he was told by his Uncle, who would have reached the age of some 90 years, that when the footings were being dug for the viaduct a number skeletons were unearthed.

The Brecon and Merthyr Railway

By the second half of the 19th century, Merthyr was served by several railway companies, one of which was the Brecon and Merthyr Tydfil Junction Railway (B&M) which, as its name implies, ran from Brecon to Merthyr.

A 1905 map showing the Railways around Merthyr and Dowlais

As early as 1836, Sir John Josiah Guest, of the Dowlais Ironworks, had written of his proposal to construct a railway linking Dowlais to the valley of the River Usk, and possibly also running into Brecon. The line would have pretty nearly covered the same route as was eventually adopted by the B&M. A similar proposal suggested a line running up the Taf Fawr valley over the Brecon Beacons via Storey Arms and thence to Brecon.

The Brecon and Merthyr Railway Company was established by a Bill of 1859, financially supported by several prominent Brecon citizens, and the complete route from Brecon to Merthyr Tydfil was authorised the following year. The first section to open was a 6.75 miles (10.86 km) section between Brecon and Talybont-on-Usk in 1863, which reused a section of a horse-drawn tram line. The Beacons Tunnel at Torpantau opened in 1868. Officially named the Torpantau Tunnel, at 1313 feet above mean sea level, it is the highest railway tunnel in Britain.

The system eventually came to comprise two sections of lines:

The Southern section, effectively the consumed Rumney Railway, which linked Bassaleg (where there were connections with the GWR and the London and North Western Railway) and the ironworks town of Rhymney, near the head of the Rhymney Valley.
The Northern section linked Deri Junction by means of running powers over a section of the Rhymney Railway in the Bargoed Rhymney Valley to Pant, Pontsticill and Brecon via a tunnel through the Brecon Beacons. From the tunnel the line descended towards Talybont-on-Usk on a continuous 1-in-38 gradient known as the “Seven-Mile Bank”. For southbound trains this presented the steepest continuous ascent on the British railway network.

Pontsticill Station. Photo courtesy of http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/index.htm

Initially, the only connection to Merthyr Tydfil was by means of a horse-drawn bus from Pant, but by 1868, a connection with Merthyr at Rhydycar Junction had been established by sharing lines with Vale of Neath, London and North Western and Taff Vale railways. This involved the building of nearly seven miles of single line from Pontsticill to Merthyr, with an almost continuous descent of 1 in 45-50, two complete reversals of direction, and the construction of two viaducts to carry the line over the Taf Fechan at Pontsarn, and the Taf Fawr at Cefn Coed.

North of the Pontsarn viaduct, a connection was made with the LNWR’s Merthyr Extension line at Morlais Tunnel Junction from where the latter’s double track entered the 1034 yard Morlais Tunnel and beyond routed along the double line to Dowlais High Street and thence to Tredegar, Brynmawr and Abergavenny. The sections from Merthyr to Pontsticill and Bargoed through to Brecon were laid as single lines with passing loops and usually locomotive watering facilities at principal stations. For those single lines, tokens were issued to drivers from signal boxes at such locations and being essential for safe working over single lines.

A train leaving the Morlais Tunnel. Photo courtesy of http://www.alangeorge.co.uk/index.htm

The line was eventually amalgamated with the Great Western Railway in 1923, and by 1958, the line was running three services each way on weekdays, increasing to four on Saturdays, taking around 2½ hours to run from Brecon to Newport. Although surviving nationalisation, the service had run at a substantial loss for most of its lifetime, and was an obvious candidate for closure. Passenger services were closed from Pontsticill Junction to Merthyr Tydfil in November 1961, with the remainder of services stopping at the end of the 1962. The line was closed completely after the withdrawal of goods services in 1964.

Towards the end of the 1970s, a private company, the Brecon Mountain Railway, began to build a narrow-gauge steam-hauled tourist line on the existing 5.5-mile (8.9 km) trackbed from Pant through Pontsticill to Dol-y-gaer. The initial section of 1.75 miles (2.82 km) from Pant to Pontsticill first opened in June 1980. After more than 30 years of hard work and extra-funding, passenger services finally extended to Torpantau in April 2014, bringing the BMR to a total of approximately 5 miles in length.

For more about the Brecon Mountain Railway, please follow the link below:

https://www.bmr.wales/